Candidate wants decision overturned

By Ed Runyan | March 10, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

WARREN

Ken MacPherson has filed legal action with the 11th District Court of Appeals, seeking to have the court overturn last week’s decision by the Trumbull County Board of Elections that removed him as an at-large candidate for Warren City Council.

MacPherson, 44, a Democrat, and his attorney, Harry J. DiPietro of Girard, filed a mandamus action Tuesday.

The filing states there is a deadline for the court to act: The elections board will order paper ballots for the May 3 primary election March 18, and MacPherson believes his name should be on those ballots.

DiPietro said the court will expedite the matter.

The elections board removed MacPherson as a candidate Friday, after another at-large candidate, Bill Kruppa, filed a complaint with the elections board last month, saying MacPherson didn’t meet the residency requirement.

Evidence presented at the hearing indicated MacPherson got married in August 2009 to Cindy Michael, and MacPherson began to reside at her house on Central Parkway in Warren at that time.

However, MacPherson continued to vote in Howland Township in November 2009 and November 2010.

Kruppa said MacPherson was either a Howland resident when he voted in Howland in 2009 and 2010 or he was committing voter fraud, a felony.

But MacPherson, who attended schools in Howland, has said his voting is a separate issue, and Ohio election law only requires him to live in Warren from some date in November 2010 until Nov. 8, 2011 — the date of the next general election.

With MacPherson off of the ballot, there are four Democrats running for three at-large positions.